Friday, November 16, 2012

Fall disease pressure

As we progress into the winter months our old friend Fusarium has made its ugly appearance. We have been on a pretty aggressive fungicide application schedule this fall, which has me perplexed as to why we had such an outbreak. Generally, with a schedule of applying fungicides on a regular basis we can keep the disease in check.

Fusarium #5 green

Fusarium left unchecked can get pretty ugly and leave the putting surface bumpy. One of the problems in contracting the disease during this time of the year is that it is difficult to get the turf to recover due to the winter time slow down in turfgrass growth. We are doing everything we can to help protect what has not been infected. The picture below was taken after we applied a granular product. If you look closely you can see some recovery already taking place in the middle of the spot.

Fungicide application



Canterwood as you know is a very shaded golf course during the winter months. This is one reason why I think it has been difficult to keep the disease from staying away. Cool, overcast, wet and shady conditions all add up to perfect conditions for the disease to appear. The good news is that with continued applications it will recover over time.